Here's to yet another chapter going out. Though I don't think I can keep this going for too much longer, so it'll end fairly soon. However, I need more time to focus on my other fanfic, Revelations, which is a Yullen. But I'm going to make this one end as good as I can. This won't be the last chapter, but the next one probably will. I hope you've enjoyed this, seeing as how it was my first story on !
Oh yeah, and I'm sorry about all the line breaks disappearing in the previous chapters of this fic. But, of course, that's due to something the site did, and so until I find the time to go back and fix it, I'm sorry you had to go through that! I know it's annoying to try and read something and it changes without you realizing it . . .
-break-
"Let's just say," Lulubell breathed, leaning forward until her face was hardly an inch from Kanda's, "that I have my sources. Now, answer me. Has your curse been broken?"
"You still don't have any right to know," Kanda replied smartly. He wasn't about to give any information up to this woman, whether it was relevant or not.
"I think I do have that right, Yu Kanda," Lulubell smirked. Something hard prodded him in the stomach. Kanda let out a breath as he realized that the Noah was holding a knife to him, point first. She was prepared to stab him if he didn't answer. And Kanda couldn't have that, because . . .
"Tch. Yeah, it's broken. But like that's going to be of any use to you. Your powers are gone."
"Are they truly gone, my prisoner?" she whispered. As Kanda watched, the woman changed from a platinum blonde into something much more . . . menacing. The long blonde hair turned to black. Lulubell's skin turned from a pale silky cream to an ashy grey. A long whip extended from her hand, coiling around on the floor to circle around Kanda's feet. And on her forehead, one by one, the marks of the Noah clan crept out from the skin grotesquely. "You see . . . because I remain loyal to my master, even after his untimely passing, I have yet to relinquish my hold on the powers the Millennium Earl granted me. Yu Kanda, I believe you're in a bit of a fix."
-break-
Komui's head snapped up from the window. "Reever!"
"Eh?" The head of the science division turned around to look at his companion. "What is it?"
"Something's wrong." Determinedly, Komui pulled down the front of his beret before swiping out a small handheld remote.
"Chief! Where did you get that?"
A demonic glint sparked in Komui's eyes. "I've been saving it for an intruder ever since the Noah infiltrated our command station before. I believe now is the best time to try it out! And," he continued in a whisper, "if by some chance poor little General Walker gets caught up in the fray, we'll mourn, of course . . . but at least my precious Lenalee will be safe!"
"Hey! Komui, you can't just—geez!" Reever shook his head and took off after the crazy man. "Allen," he said to himself. "I'm praying for you. Inwardly."
-break-
"Well," Road began. "I think I started to like you when you went after Allen. You know, when he lost his Innocence to Tyki."
"Wait, you were there?" Lavi demanded.
"Yes . . . the Earl always asked us to spy on the enemy. I wasn't there when Tyki . . . did that, or I might have actually stopped him. But I was there when you took Lenalee to find your comrade." Road looked down at her feet again, crossing the stocking covered ankles together. "I knew we were enemies, but when I saw that look of hate in your eyes for the pain your comrade went through, it made me realize just how much I wanted to be on your side. It made me think that I wanted to be your friend. I knew that on my side, if I were hurt the only one who would be mad was Tyki. Because he's my uncle in real life anyway."
"You mean that even though you were all forced into it . . ."
"We couldn't trust each other. We didn't know if anyone really was on the Earl's side. There was an awkward truce between all of us. We'd cry if another one died, but only because it was in the genes the Earl had implanted within us. We didn't really care for each other all that much. Anyway, I didn't see you again until you entered the Ark. But through that time I didn't, I . . . kept thinking of you. I wondered if you had found Allen, and if you were still alive. We didn't tell each other which ones we'd killed, because we felt guilty about it. When I saw you come into the top room of the ark, I could have cried. So I hid it behind pretending to love Allen."
Lavi frowned. He had to admit, he'd been the teensiest bit jealous when Road had kissed Allen . . . but surely that had been because he wanted a girl and Allen could reel them in so easily. Thinking back now . . . yup. He'd been quite a bit jealous.
"I know this is off of the subject," Lavi murmured, "but what about now? Do you trust each other now? As fellow friends."
"Well, I'm still not quite used to Jasdebi; I miss the twins as separate people. But Tyki and I have gotten closer. The only one I still don't trust is Lulubell."
"Why?"
Road frowned. "I think she really was on the Earl's side. He showed so much favor towards her that he didn't bother to with us. But she's stayed with us, so I don't know. I just stay away from her whenever I have the chance."
"If you don't trust her, then why do you let her stay with you?"
"Huh?" Road glanced up in confusion.
"If there was someone here I didn't trust and wanted to get rid of, I wouldn't let them stay with me." Lavi shrugged. "Maybe it's just the way I was raised. But around my friends, I know the emotions going through everyone's head. And if there's something wrong with one of them . . . if I sense any sort of animosity from one of them, I'm going to get suspicious. Do you understand?"
"I think so. So this was why even though you were a Bookman, you had absolute faith in your friends?"
"Exactly," Lavi laughed. "Gramps just didn't understand. But . . . he was right that I would be biased in my recording of this war. I couldn't help writing rude things about your side, because you kept hurting my companions. I hated you. And the other day, when Allen said you were coming to make amends, I wanted to yell at him for trusting you. But Allen was right. He'd known you longer than I have, he's fought with you more. He knew that some of you weren't doing this of your own free will."
"I'm surprised he trusted me, though. After I stabbed his eye and all."
"That's the thing about Allen. He's quick to forgive if it's about himself. But if it's about his friends, he'll never forgive you."
"I should have seen how things were between your side," Road whispered. Slowly she placed her face into her hands. "If I'd noticed, I would have known for certain that you were the good ones. Instead, I just thought that both sides were in the wrong. I just wanted to be free. Lavi, I'm so sorry I hurt you . . . I'm sorry I hurt all of you. I—" She froze, lifting her head with a frown of confusion. "My . . . head hurts."
"Maybe you have a headache . . ."
"No, that's not it." Road closed her eyes for just a moment. "Stigmata . . . someone has activated the stigmata."
Lavi was so shocked by this he nearly jumped upright. "Wait, but I thought the Noah in you disappeared when the Earl was killed!"
"But if anyone were still on his side . . . oh no! We've allowed someone to get inside . . . Lavi, one of us has betrayed everyone. I have to go stop—"
"I'm coming too."
"But your leg . . ."
"It's not that bad. I just need some help. You're not leaving me out of a good brawl, Road. You proclaimed your love to me, right?"
Road frowned. "Yes . . ."
Lavi grinned playfully. "Then I'll tell you how I feel if you help me to the source of our evil. Do we have a deal?"
With a small laugh, Road pulled Lavi upright, tugging on his hands as a child would. "You know, even if you stopped the Bookman line, you're still a bookman, through and through. You butt your way into any sort of information."
"I can't help it," he replied. "It's in my blood to be insatiably curious."
-break-
"How did you manage to keep the Noah in you?" Kanda asked, painfully conscious of the knife at his stomach and the whip coiled around him. But that didn't mean he couldn't maintain his current demeanor. If Kanda couldn't retain his pride, he'd let himself get killed.
"My Lord, the Millenium Earl, knew that he was going to die. He knew that your Allen Walker would be the one to kill him." Lulubell smirked. "He told me that he wished me to carry on his will after his death, until my dying breath. You see . . . he didn't trust the rest of them. He thought that they would fall from his way once he was gone. That they would only stay on his side if there was something to gain. But he trusted me to be loyal to him. I would never fail to please my Lord. He granted me eternal Noah."
"Here's another question." Kanda allowed a triumphant grin to appear on his face. "How do you plan to take us all down alone? You realize it's one to about ten. You'd never be able to win."
"I know that," the woman hissed. "Until my dying breath. I can't stay here when there's no way for my side to win. So I'll just take as many of you out as I can. I was planning on doing it during dinner, but your young General seemed to have his guard up. He sensed something wrong. I figured the next best way to go would be to separate you, one by one. And you just came right to me. Poor Kanda Yu, so bored and alone in the Order."
"You don't get it," Kanda laughed, near derisively. "I've always been alone. It's the way I like it."
"Which is why I knew I would be able to kill you, at least. There's no one here to save you, and you're cornered. You don't even have your Innocence with you, so I don't feel the slightest bit threatened."
"That was my fault for trusting you. Now I know not to and I'll remember it for the future."
"There won't be a future, Kanda Yu. I've made certain of that. You're going to Hell with me."
"Hell?" Kanda stared at the woman scaldingly. Was she stupid? "Do you forget that as an Exorcist, I serve God?"
"But despite that, you've never been a believer, have you? After all, it's not like you became attached to the Innocence within normal means. It was implanted within you."
"That doesn't matter. The existence of that stupid Moyashi changed my perspective on things. There has to be a God if the brat still survives. God saved him. He chose us for a reason, or else I would have become a Fallen One." Kanda paused. "You can kill me, Lulubell, but I'm sure not going to Hell. You're the one going to the furthest depths of it."
With a guttural snarl, Lulubell pulled back the blade to better angle it at the raven-haired Exorcist. Kanda, though he knew he probably would not make it out of this alive, remained in his position, glaring passionately at the woman standing before him. To his death, his pride would remain with him.
But then . . .
"Behold!" A certain beret-wearing, glasses-sporting mad scientist yelled dramatically. "Evil Noah, witness the terror that is my beloved Komurin . . . revised! Your Noah days are over!"
Kanda smacked his head to his forehead in frustration. God forbid he was going to die at the hands of a robot . . .
-break-
Haha, that was actually kind of fun. X.X
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. After writing it, I think that there will be one more chapter before the last one, and the last one I'll do as an epilogue.
Review and tell me what you think of this chapter! And critiques, of course, are always open.
